Last night Janet Wolter, the co-author of America: Nation of the Goddess, appeared on the Euphomet podcast in order to promote their book. (You can find my multi-part review linked on my Book Reviews page.) There was rather little new material in the interview, which covered the claims made in the book, often in the same words as the book itself. For example, the first section of the interview recapitulates their allegations about the Grange, just as the book had done. She even repeats false claims from earlier radio appearances, like the alleged importance of the date September 17 (Constitution Day, which is not the same day as the Eleusinian Mysteries), and false claims from her husband like the claim that the letter M is the thirteenth letter of the alphabet and thus symbolizes Mary Magdalene, the thirteenth apostle. (In the Roman alphabet, before the addition of the letter J in 1524, it was the twelfth letter.)

After that, Wolter describes her views on the so-called “Venus Families,” which she defines, as in the book, as a cult of aristocrats who “preserved” an ancient religion in which “the goddess was paramount.” She says that the cult “has an Egyptian aspect” and “a Druid aspect” but might be older. Presumably she is referring back to Neolithic cultures like Çatalhöyük, as filtered through middle twentieth century feminist claims about supposedly “matriarchal” pre-Indo-European cultures that were destroyed by the Indo-Europeans and their patriarchal culture and gods. Or, given the research skills of Wolter and Butler, they’re probably just talking about Robert Graves’s White Goddess and a bunch of Mary Magdalene conspiracy books from the 1990s.

Wolter repeats Templar conspiracy theories that were first proposed by Eugène Beauvois in 1902, specifically that the Knights Templar fled France in 1307 and went to Scotland, Scandinavia, and the northern fringes of Europe to escape persecution before traveling from those areas across the northern Atlantic to America. To this old claim she adds material taken over from Baigent and Leigh’s The Temple and the Lodge and Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln’s Holy Blood, Holy Grail which alleges that the Templars carried the bloodline of the descendants of Jesus with them. Since the conspiracy theories about Templar journeys to America were first proposed in 1902, and the Bloodline conspiracy in 1887, not a single shred of proof has emerged to support either, but the initial claims instead became “proof” later writers used to build the cathedral of assumptions that forms the Templar-Bloodline complex.

Wolter’s big idea is that the Templar-Bloodline-Venus Families are goddess worshipers, but her ideas remain confusing and a bit contradictory. Her first allegation is that the Venus Families have been goddess worshipers since ancient Egypt or earlier, yet the second allegation is that the “sacred feminine” is embodied in Mary Magdalene, the Queen of the Earth. But, as should be plain, Mary Magdalene did not exist before roughly 1 CE (if she were a real person at all) and therefore cannot be a goddess or the feminine aspect of god. Wolter makes no claim for her akin to what Christians say of Jesus—that he was literally god incarnate—so what, pray tell, are these Venus Families worshiping when it comes to the Magdalene? Wolter’s idea seems to be that the Magdalene is the ancient goddess wrapped in human guise to hide her from the Church, but this is rather an odd assertion since the Catholic Church long claimed the Virgin Mary as the Queen of Heaven, and granted her supernatural attributes (immaculate conception, intercessory power, etc.) more befitting of a goddess. The importance of the Magdalene to the cult stems entirely from her supposed role as the mother of the Bloodline, and yet Wolter wants to downplay the Bloodline as only one aspect of a cult that long predates it.

If I understand correctly, Wolter also believes that wealthy people become new members of the Venus Families and thus enter into the cult of secrecy after they make money, which is why the rich and powerful have never used their money to expose the secrets of the cult.

I have to stop here and point out the ridiculous Eurocentrism of these ideas. There is a whole world of five billion non-Christians. What of them? Did not a single one encounter this apparently all-powerful Magdalene cult and say, “Wow, that’s really stupid,” and do anything against it? Why, for example, did the Muslims, who already hold many of the beliefs about Jesus that Wolter implies are Venus Family state secrets (Qur’an 4:157), never mention even once that there was a group of crazies in Europe who were running around spouting nonsense about the Qur’anic view of Jesus’ crucifixion? Surely people who are opposed to European power might have had an interest in exposing these claims.

To judge from her statements, Wolter is laughably ill-informed about history, and she alleges that America was the first country to have neither king nor queen but government of the people, which she attributes to the Cistercian monastic rules. Seriously? Had she never heard of the democracy of Athens, or the Republic of Rome? Had she never considered the dozens of medieval republics and commonwealths? America did not emerge ex nihilo but developed from earlier models.

Instead, Wolter claims that the Templars’ gold and silver funded the American Revolution, which must have been quite a surprise to the Continental Congress, since it printed worthless paper money to cover their debts. If you care, the states paid £64 million and Congress £46 million, in addition to which the various governments took out £165 million in debt. You can read about it here and see that there was no room for chests of Templar gold, which wouldn’t have been enough to cover the costs anyway.

After this, Wolter recites many of the claims about shadows and sexual penetration around U.S. government buildings, and conspiracy theories about obelisks in New York City.

What’s evident, though, is that Wolter’s own personal preferences about spirituality and faith have influenced her recreation of the past. She attributes to the Templars and Venus Families claims that have no basis even in pseudohistory, and can only come from her own preferences, which to judge from her words are a mix of Protestantism, feminism, and American exceptionalism. For example, she alleges that the Venus Families disagree with the Catholic belief that the Church is the intermediary between humanity and God and therefore established America to make sure everyone could approach God individually. This is a Protestant article of faith, and a mainstream one, no secret to anyone born after Martin Luther. She similarly expressed outrage at the Inquisition, another Protestant target, and claims that the Venus Families were behind freedom of speech and thought. She calls America the “New Jerusalem,” as though the English hadn’t done so in the colonial era. She rhapsodizes over “all this freedom” in America, which she attributes to a secretive feminist blood cult that refuses to make its presence known for fear it would destroy the Christian faith of millions of believers. You know: Freedom and Truth!

Do New Zealanders, who also have “all this freedom” (and actually more), according to the Human Freedom Index published by Canada’s Fraser Institute, Germany’s Liberales Institute, and America’s Cato Institute, suffer from the same secretive manipulation of goddess-worshiping elites? Or the Dutch, or the eight other countries that rank above America on the Freedom Index?

Wolter also claims that “science was against Church doctrine at the time—they weren’t supposed to be doing science,” so any evidence of scientific advancement in the Middle Ages is prima facie proof of cult activity. Methinks someone has misunderstood the history of science, and the Church. Just for instance: The writ of the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages did not extend beyond northern Spain to the West or the Danube to the East (leaving aside the brief reign of the Latin Empire of Constantinople), and sat uneasily on Outremer during the slow decline of the Crusader States. The point is that even if we concede Wolter’s point entire, “science” had plenty of places to develop outside of Catholic Europe, including among the enemies of Catholicism. Only a Eurocentric perspective would imagine that central Europe was the world, or that medieval Catholic Europe was powerful enough to control the “truth” on behalf of the whole world.

I always get a mental picture of the body of "knowledge" for fringe history to be a kind of gene pool of ideas from which books and media are emerging with occasional "mutations" forming new ideas that are really just chimeras of other bad ones. The authors of these books only cite each other, only read each other, and allow little new material from the outside in, which effectively shuts them off from reality.

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Templar Secrets

8/19/2016 11:46:11 am

Finding out the secret of the ages would spoil everything, there would be nothing left in the chase - and that's where the excitement lies, in the maze without a cente.

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Graffitibird

8/19/2016 11:56:05 am

First, Jason, thank you for this space and your hard work. I've used your blog in my composition classroom while teaching Internet research skills especially in discerning credibility. Your posts have opened many minds among my students on how to question what is presented online and in the media. In a generation that has been fed an overload of information, learning that they don't have to believe everything they read/hear/see without question is a powerful tool.

I have followed Janet Wolter's foray into reinterpreting history with a good deal of dismay. I read the book when it was released. I have a particular interest in symbolism and a fair interest in theology as the daughter of a Ph.D. in the discipline. My own academic background is an MA in rhetoric with a fair study of semiotics. Saying all that, I realize that as far as the Wolters are concerned, I have negated anything I have to say on the subject: I am an academic therefore nothing I say is without corruption.

Yet I find all of Wolter/Butler's assertions about goddess worship and the (maligned here) Grange organization to be a stew of corruptions. For her to claim a mantle of authority to write about history, comparative religion, semiotics, and even architecture with a CV that only includes her marriage to Scott and her work on America Unearthed as a historic researcher leaves me shaking my head and explains the lack of depth of the work and misinterpretation of all they seek to expose.

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jjJackson

8/19/2016 12:00:04 pm

What a complete waste of time reading this blather. Colavito claims to be a best selling author. What trivial nonsense he spews.

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Denise

8/19/2016 02:13:54 pm

I have never read anywhere, where Jason claims to a best selling author, if anything he's admitted to the opposite. If you feel this is a complete waste of time to read....why are you here reading it?

It's you wasting time not him.....

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jjjackson

8/19/2016 04:50:49 pm

For several years Jason described himself as a best selling author in his self written bio. He's tried to cover it up but you can see it by using archive.org wayback machine. It's just one of many deceptions. Of course he'll delete this like he does frequently.

jjjackson

8/19/2016 04:58:26 pm

You would find many lies and deceptions in his blogs but you don't actually check to see if what he claims about others is true. You believe that a secondary source is always correct. He is the secondary source. If you actually believe he can translate dozens of languages including archaic ones you are ... Not worth another word.

Only Me

8/19/2016 05:53:00 pm

1) His claim as a best-selling author was based on the sales of his book in its category. That's how it works. It doesn't matter if he outsold his nearest competitor by five books or fifty, if his book sold the most copies in its category, then it is a best seller. Nothing disingenuous about that.

2) Jason links to his sources within the blog posts. If you're too lazy to follow them, that's your problem. I will now challenge you to prove he can't translate the various languages some of his sources are written in. If you are unable or unwilling to provide such proof, it is YOU who aren't worth another word.

jjjackson

8/19/2016 06:07:14 pm

Jason's book sale rankings on Amazon... Oh yeah, sorry. His books are ranked as about the. Two millionth best selling books. As to him knowing how to translate dozens of languages accurately I can't take his lover's word for it. He just says he can translate everything and you say he can. He does exactly what he says the fringe writers do. You just likes what he says and are in love with him.

John (the other one)

8/19/2016 06:11:11 pm

So basically...you don't know what you are talking about?

You aren't sure how a best seller works and you aren't sure what a source is or how translation works.

Troll somewhere else or say something useful.

Ysne58

8/19/2016 06:24:51 pm

Translating is not that hard if you have the right reference materials. Jason appears to have the right reference materials.

Only Me

8/19/2016 06:36:28 pm

"He just says he can translate everything and you say he can."

No, you implied Jason doesn't translate his sources and I asked you to provide evidence he can't. Nowhere in my reply did I state he could. Your unfounded accusation is exposed.

"You just likes what he says and are in love with him."

Typical response. Shoot your mouth off, get called out on it, then resort to ad hominems. Since you don't have the intellectual power to debate, why are you here?

jjjackson

8/19/2016 06:50:44 pm

Not one of Jason's books ranks better than 800,000. The bottom line is he exaggerated his status like resume padding. Also thanks for telling us how he translates. He's a total fraud.

Only Me

8/19/2016 07:06:19 pm

As previously noted, you clearly don't understand what a best-seller is or how it earns that title.

By your logic, any scholar that uses reference materials to translate a language is a fraud. Congratulations, you have failed miserably to discredit Jason or make a valid criticism.

Gunn

8/19/2016 12:13:29 pm

I've always found it interesting that the Catholic Church saw fit to make room for heavenly intercessors, such as Mary and various "Saints," while the Bible makes it startlingly clear that there is only one acceptable intercessor between God and humans. Of course, that would be Jesus, ultimate Saviour of humanity, who Himself paid the price of our possible salvation in blood. This is the blood which should be referred to, not an unholy bloodline.

In my opinion, this was an exceptionally well written blog subject heading, which I thought explained a lot of complicated ideas in a succinct and balanced perspective.

People might begin to see that the Wolters are dangerous to Christianity. This wouldn't seem to matter so much, except that this couple's combined ideas make folly of the Kensington Runestone, too, by attaching all manner of spiritual garbage to it...as though the Christian monk carver (if this be the case) believed all this trash. How does all this represent the KRS in anything but a foolish light? Finally then, the Wolters need to be separated from the KRS--which I believe tells a factual and true story from 1362, in carved inscription form.

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Templar Secrets

8/19/2016 01:26:25 pm

Had you ever bothered to exercise putting things to the critical test you would never have wasted such time on this blatant nonsense.
There's much more intelligent input in the average Marvel Comic.

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Gunn

8/20/2016 02:10:58 pm

You should change your name again, Time Machine, as you did soon after I suggested that you are a poor representative of that phrase. You must have seen the truth in it. Now, I suggest again that you are a poor representative of the phrase "Templar Secrets." The great secret--your great search of a lifetime for spiritual meaning--is encapsulated in what the true Knights Templar believed to the death: that Jesus Christ is Lord. Their "Templar Secret" was to Love God. Try another blog name...something a bit more accurate...or, how about something whimsical, like "grasshopper?"

John (the other one)

8/19/2016 06:13:44 pm

Why does everything have to do with the KRS?

Also, Christians and logic are the only dangers to Christianity. I'm pretty sure Christianity will be just fine no matter how much gibberish any Wolter spouts.

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Templar Secrets

8/19/2016 07:01:06 pm

>>>Christianity will be just fine<<<

Stupidity will remain indestructible in whatever manifestation.

John (the other one)

8/19/2016 10:38:38 pm

Time Machine, do you understand the concept of taking something out of context?

You seem to do it a lot, I realize you don't seem to understand a lot of what people write about here but if you tried to realize that context mattered maybe you wouldn't be so confused all the time.

Templar Secrets

8/20/2016 09:59:09 am

No, I don't know what taking things out of context means

LOL

Gunn

8/20/2016 02:24:18 pm

The entire subject matter of the blog concerned the Wolters, and that team's attempt to overlay the KRS with their nonsensical ideology is always imminent in any conversation about them. The KRS and the Wolters were (past tense) connected at the hip.

No need to be so rude next time.

A Buddhist

8/20/2016 03:42:12 pm

As a Neutral: There is nothing wrong with being a danger to Christianity - if it be true, then there is no need to worry, and if it be false, then destroying lies is good.

As a Buddhist: You claim to know the truth in YHVH's son, but that truth is based upon the Bible. Yet the Bible teaches of Ishvara, and relies upon unrepeatable mind-only events. Karma comes from body, speech, and mind, so you with your belief in Jesus's salvation through blood, preaching (aka euangelion), and belief, acknowledge karma also.

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Gunn

8/20/2016 10:32:47 pm

Body, speech and mind? Okay, by His stripes we are healed. That got quite physical, perhaps with audible groans. The mindset was to do His Father's will.

In my own opinion, the idea of karma is appealing to the notion of fairness, but ultimate judgement of all things will come from the Creator of the Universe.

The danger to Christianity I spoke to is a spread of confusion and hinderance to those minds who are weak, spiritually, and easily snared into hogwash.

Denise

8/19/2016 02:32:51 pm

Hey Jason,

I just gotta know...how many languages can you read? I am constantly amazed at your versatility/ability to be able to read primary sources. While I know some basic linguistic family stuff and have a passion to know how words evolve, as well as calendars and alphabets. i can't actually read them. I am jealous. Just like i am a mediocre musician who can read music, but lack the talent of being able to play by ear or just simply be able to compose.

People who think your your wasting your time, are wrong there are some of us who love history trivia and unobtainable facts (to us) that love your blog. Doesn't mean I read it all the time, or even every entry, but you are more interesting the Skeptic Inquirer.

I can read Latin and most Romance languages (French and Spanish are my best), and I have a smattering of German and Greek, but not really enough to be proficient in either.

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Mike

8/19/2016 03:02:30 pm

This is interesting.... http://jasoncolavitothefraud.blogspot.ca/

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Ysne58

8/19/2016 03:16:13 pm

1. Ick.
2. That is a Canadian web site as are all the other ones and each and every one leaves it self wide open to defamation charges, something Canada law does not take lightly.
3. The fringers engaging in this should feel ashamed of themselves.

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Kathleen

8/19/2016 03:44:33 pm

OMG! Ick is right! Don't want to be left alone in a room with whoever wrote it.

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John (the other one)

8/19/2016 06:15:54 pm

It's that newspaper copying Canadian bible giant "researcher". He seems to have some sort of personality issue in a similar vein to another fringe idiot who recently posted a lot on this website.

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Templar Secrets

8/20/2016 10:19:45 am

Hello Clint

Only Me

8/19/2016 03:54:44 pm

"recreation of the past"

That's the crux of Wolter's claims. She, like her husband, is lost in a self-made mystery that there *must* be something hidden or suppressed, because neither understands the work historians, archaeologists and anthropologists do.

It's a shame she can produce the romance novel equivalent of "historical research" and be given a platform.

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Graffitibird

8/19/2016 10:38:03 pm

Indeed! The Harlequin Romance version of history.

Honestly, the idea that the world actually works in the way the Wolters think it does is just beyond. Symbols are useful to tell visual stories about us, consciously and unconsciously but are most often reflections of who we are and what we believe or value. They are not usually road maps to treasure or cult manifestos.

Just ugh.

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A C

8/19/2016 06:05:46 pm

One of the ironies here is that there's nothing 'feminist' about this whole 'sacred feminine'/mother goddess stuff, since it basically boils down to gender essentialism and putting women on a de-humanised pedestal while also being drawn mainly from a cliff notes version of kaballa, which while not the worst, is hardly a woman positive form of mysticism.

The whole concept of a 'Great Mother Goddess' basically involves destroying and boiling down the diverse expressions of female characters in world mythology into a boring archetype entirely based on reproduction and Victorian notions of 'the fairer sex'. This sort of nonsense does far more to destroy and distort female spirituality than a million Catholic Churches, while the actual Catholic church preserves a diversity of female mythic figures that to some degree actually represent women more that some nebulous 'feminine' ever could.

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Graham

8/19/2016 09:56:29 pm

Eurocentric? In my experience with conspiracy theorists, even the ones outside the United States seem to think that the world ends at the continental borders of the United States.

The League of Nerds noticed this when covering Anti-GMO activists. Conspiracy theories as they stand tend to be Americocentric.

We have the odd case that since America is the "new" world, prior to its integration into the European sphere of influence fringe historians' loyalties lie with Europe, usually England. After, they still take the Eurocentric view in that they identify the protagonists of the story as Euro-Americans, typically Anglo-Americans, through whose lenses they view history. Here "Eurocentrism" is perhaps more properly a focus on white northern Europeans and their American descendants.

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Templar Secrets

8/20/2016 10:00:45 am

All interpretation.
And the pseudo-historians don't operate on this level.

Templar Secrets

8/20/2016 10:35:44 am

How can anyone anywhere say that Western Culture is "not" pre-eminent. This is political correctness gone bananas.

It would be a massive list to give all the names of the countries who would like to be on the same economic level of Western Civilization but are unable due to limitations.

The point is that in the Middle Ages Europe was not the world's preeminent power and could not exert it writ outside its borders.

PostModernPrimate

8/20/2016 01:39:30 pm

Just as a heads up Jason, you should probably avoid citing anything published by the Fraser Institute. I say that as a native Vancouverite and former professor of politics at one of Canada's top universities. Amongst serious scholars, the Fraser Institute is viewed as a reactionary joke and the quality of their scholarship as extraordinarily poor. They are less a "think tank" and more a lobbying firm for multi-national corporations, fossil fuel conglomerates, and fundamentalist Christian conservatives.

Thanks! I've never heard of them, but I guess if they are working with the Cato Institute that makes sense.

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PostModernPrimate

8/20/2016 03:47:24 pm

No problem! Happy to help. Keep up the great work. I genuinely look forward to checking your blog every day to see what new, interesting discoveries you have found.

Ted

8/20/2016 02:43:43 pm

The Declaration of Arbroath states that all Scottish nobility was descendant of Scythian and Egyptian Kings. This is signed and sealed by several Scots noble families. So. Does this mean it was true? What is clear is that they behaved as if this was true at many points during history including the settlement of the Americas. All of what Ms. Wolter is stating is a misinterpretation of all of this later. In some cases their descendants did things like go around leaving fake "Viking" sites and other anomalies in order to bolster their false claim to N. America within a Royal context. At the same time all of the Mary Magdalene culture was propagated to weaken the church by those with a vision of the ideal of the Republic. So you are spot on about how they ignore the existence of entities like the Republic of Genoa when ascertaining the hidden mores of Christopher Columbus and others. They may have believed they were descendant of this ancient royalty and behaved accordingly leading to many misinterpretations ala the KRS and the other ideas. The Mormons think that this same crew came to the Americas long ago. That is why everthing from from Oak Island to the KRS has a veneer of B.S. hovering over it. All of it was done by the same people for the same reasons......

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Mark

8/20/2016 05:07:36 pm

>Presumably she is referring back to Neolithic cultures like
>Çatalhöyük, as filtered through middle twentieth century feminist
>claims about supposedly “matriarchal” pre-Indo-European cultures
>that were destroyed by the Indo-Europeans and their patriarchal
>culture and gods.

I'm guessing you're referring to Marija Gimbutas here? Just finished reading _The Civilization of the Goddess_ (research for a story).

Actually, I'm wondering if anyone can recommend a good modern skeptical takedown of Gimbutas? I know she's generally seen by archeologists as having gone off the rails with the "Goddess Civilization" thing - reading her book, I was struck myself by how little evidence she had to support her many conclusions - but I'd like to see the take of an actual expert in the field, or at least someone who's read a lot more of the experts than I have.

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I'm an author and editor who has published on a range of topics, including archaeology, science, and horror fiction. There's more about me in the About Jason tab.